Analysis: Few Ways Out of Arkansas’ MMJ Stalemate

Analysis: Few Ways Out of Arkansas’ Medical Marijuana Stalemate(Michael Warren/iStock)LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Weeks after he effectively halted the launch of Arkansas’ medical marijuana program, a judge is urging officials to find a way to resume evaluating applications. Those appeals set the stage for a potentially protracted legal fight that will keep the cultivation licensing in limbo even further. But overhauling the licensing process or re-evaluating the 95 applications to grow medical marijuana is also problematic. The state’s decision to stop reviewing dispensary applications for now has disheartened medical marijuana supporters. Starting from scratch is just as likely to end up before the state Supreme Court.

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Analysis: Few Ways Out of Arkansas’ Medical Marijuana Stalemate

(Michael Warren/iStock)

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Weeks after he effectively halted the launch of Arkansas’ medical marijuana program, a judge is urging officials to find a way to resume evaluating applications. That’s going to be easier said than done.

Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen last week encouraged the state’s Medical Marijuana Commission to fix the problems he raised last month when he said the state’s process for licensing cultivation facilities violated the voter-approved 2016 constitutional amendment legalizing medical marijuana. Griffen also indicated he didn’t view his ruling against the process as appealable to the state Supreme Court yet.

“It's very sad for the patients because I think dispensaries could meet the needs of the patient pool we have now and the anticipated patient pool.”David Couch, MMJ amendment's author